1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to material handling vehicles, and particularly to a deadman brake system for manually manipulated material handling vehicles such as mortar carts, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,861, issued Jan. 3, 1967 to LeGrand H. Lull, and No. 3,811,535, issued May 21, 1974 to J. R. Preusser, disclose brakes for material handling vehicles such as those commonly employed to transport mortar, and the like, at a construction site. These known vehicle brakes, however, are primarily intended as parking brakes which are either locked in a brake applied position by manual manipulation of an actuating lever, or are locked in a brake-released position by manipulation of the same lever in a different manner.
It is also known to provide various hand-manipulated carts with brakes that automatically apply when an operator releases the cart. Examples of such known automatically applied brakes may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 429,709, issued June 10, 1890 to W. Wilson, and No. 3,061,049, issued Oct. 30, 1952 to R. K. Bramley. While the braking system of the latter mentioned patent is intended for use with dump carts, and the like, used for transporting mortar about a building construction site, the brake system is specially designed for a certain type of mortar cart and is not readily adaptable to other commonly used mortar carts, such as those shown in the aforementioned Pat. Nos. 3,295,861 and 3,811,535.